Episode 91: The Metaverse

What this episode covers

Katherine Druckman and Doc Searls talk to Kyle Rankin about the metaverse of Facebook and beyond, how it may intersect with Web 3 and blockchain, as well as Second Life and the verses that came before. Reality 2.0 around the web: Site/Blog/Newsletter FaceBook Twitter YouTube MastodonSpecial Guest: Kyle Rankin.Support Reality 2.0Links:Snow Crash: Stephenson, Neal: 2015553380958: Amazon.com: Books Building a Multibillion-Dollar Company in 18 Months (with Hopin’s Johnny Boufarhat) — Hopin is one of the fastest-growing startups in history. Founder and CEO Johnny Boufarhat joins Azeem Azhar to talk about how he grew the virtual events company from six employees in February 2020, at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, to more than eight hundred, and a valuation of almost $8 billion, a year and a half later. Johnny explains how he seized the opportunity presented by the pandemic, what it was like learning to lead at one of the fastest-growing startups in history, and why he dreams of a future in which a founder’s location is no impediment to success. Nilay Patel on Facebook’s Reckoning With Reality—And the Metaverse-Size Problems Yet to Come | Vanity Fair — After a decade covering the Zucks, Googles, and Ubers of the scene, the Verge editor in chief reflects on tech’s troublesome relationship with the rest of the world. Facebook’s fatal flaws. Facebook is doomed. | by Doc Searls | Medium — Nobody can fix this. Facebook is doomed. True, all companies are mortal. (Geoffrey West has been telling us how and why for years.) But Facebook is actually designed to fail in a world that stops tolerating the way Facebook works, and can’t quit working. The Metaverse Was Lame Even Before Facebook - The Atlantic — It was terrible then, and it’s terrible now.